"What happens to a dream deferred?" Line 1
Hughes' work is one of shattered dreams and cool anger, compressed into a very short-yet very effective- poem. Imagery is widely present in the "what if"s in the reading. This particular poem also uses many similes in its short span. These describe the possibilities of what happen to a dream. Though not literal, they are all significant in that they represent what can happen if a goal is put off for too long a period of time. Perhaps the goal will "dry up", in that the motivation needed to pursue it no longer exists: it runs out, dries up. Or the dream could "fester like a sore", become something terrible and deformed, no longer driven by good intentions but with a wayward objective. Maybe the dream would "stink like rotten mean", again becoming foul from not being taken advantage of at the proper opportunity. If it "sags like a heavy load", perhaps it is now such a burden it cannot be loved or appreciated any longer. Hughes effectively emphasizes the bitterness and disappointment of a lost dream through his similes and imagery.
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